Process of blending oils



Patented Nov. 12 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE THOMAS cox; orOAKLAND, AND MARK L. REQUA, on PIEDMONT, cnnrronnrn, AND

I ALEXANDER S. KNOWLES, OF NEW YORK, N. Y. .SAID COX AND SAID KNOWLES.AS-

SIGNORS T0 SAID REQUA rnoonss or ZBLENDING OILS No Drawing.

This invention relates to a process of physically and chemicallycombining or blending oils of the same or different bases.

It is Well known that serious difficulties are experienced in the mixingof oils to obtain permanent blends. This is true of oils from the samegeneral source and particularly true of oils from different sources,such as petroleum oils and coal tar oils. In some cases it is difficultto prevent the separation of two oils having different boiling points ordifferent gravity, even though they are deriv ed from the same source.

\Ve have discovered that permanent blends may be obtained by mixing theoil to be blended with finely crushed bituminous coal, subjecting thismixture to a coking process in an oven heated from below, and condensingthe vapors liberated during the coking process. In order that thegeneral principle of this process may be brought out more clearly,reference will be made to the type of coke.

oven disclosed in the patent to B. Zwillinger', issued September12,1922, No. 1,428,621, as an oven of this character, or in other words, anoven heated from the bottom only is essential to the successfuloperation of the process forming the subject matter of the presentapplication.

Before proceeding with the description of the oven and the actualoperation of the process, it should be understood that one of the oilsto be blended is in all instances a coal tar oil, and that this coal taroil is obtained durin the o eration of the rocess of cokin a coal;further that while the present application is more or less limited inits description to the blending of a petroleum oil or tar with the coaltar oil, it should be understood that oils or tars from other sourcesmay be blended with the coal tar oil.

The oven disclosed in the Zwillinger patent referred to is constructedof a suitable refractory material, It is approximately thirty feet longand six feet wide. The side walls are approximately thirty inches highand support an arch which is alsoconstructed of suitablerefractorymaterial. The ends of the oven are provided withdoors and thearch Wit-h charging openings, these openings to- Application filedAugust 10,1925. Serial No. 49,216.

gether with the doors being sealed during the coking and distillingoperation to prevent admission of air. The oven is heated from belowonly and coking accordingly takes place from the bottom upwardly.

In processes of this character it is impossible to specifically giveexamples of predetermined proportions of coal and oil. The reasonstherefor are: First of all, different grades of coal will producedistillates of dif ferent gravity, secondly difierent grades orvarieties of oil will give distillates of differv ent gravity. Hence, ifa request is made for a blended oil having a certain specific gravity,it is essential to do certain experimental work before such an order canbe filled. Ap-

plicants, who have done most of their work in California, have carriedon most-of this work with so-called Utah soft coal, and they have mixedwith it California asphaltic base crude oils. I-Ience, when working withthese mateobtain a blended oil consisting of creosote and crude oil andhaving a gravity of 1.02 it would be necessary to make another test ofanother 100 assay ton load of the same coal, and to this add a smallamountfor instance 18 grav-. ity crude oil, for instance 2% by weight.The oil and coal would be thoroughly mixed and then retorted, and theresulting blended oil obtained would be tested, and the test might,

indicate that approximatel 4% by weight of crude oil wasnecessary. thirdtest would then be run in the experimental retort. The same amount ofcoal, plus 4% by weight of 18 gravity crude oil would be added to thecoal, the whole mixture would be retorted and the blended oil would thenbe tested for gravity,

and if it proved to be 1.02 theexact proportion of coal and oil would beknown and ed oil desired is to be of the gravity 1.02. To

'90 for instance, show 1.06 gravity. This would I large batches of theproportions specified would then be run through the oven.

In actual operation, the coal from which the coal tar oil is obtained iscrushed to a suitable fineness. The coal is deposited through hecharging openings and is spread over the bottom to form a bed ofsuitable thickness, usually from five to twelve inches. The oven isprovided with a series of spray pipes, and the oil to be blended withthe coal tar oil is delivered to these pipes and sprayed over the coalmass, the amount sprayed being determined so that the final blended oilob tained will contain a certain percentage of coal tar oil and theother oil to be blended.

In this instance we will assume that the oil to be blended is petroleumoil and that it is sprayed over a finely crushed coal bed in suchquantities that a predetermined mixture of coal and oil will beobtainec. An examination shows that every particle 01" ceal is coveredcompletely with a film of oil, and an intimate mixture is thereforeobtained which is of great importance and which will hereinafter appear.The coking and blending action begin as soon as the coal is charged theoil applied. The vapors liberated both from the coal and the oil filterthrough the overhead coal where a part of the vapors condense. Thecondensed oils move upwardly as the cokingproceeds and suchconcentration results in a continuous production of oil and gas forseveral hours, the quality of both being high until about the last hourof distillat-ion. The vapors liberated are delivered to a standard formof condensing apparatus where the vapors are condensed and the blendedoil obtained.

The by-products and oils produced in this process from a mixture of coiland petroleum oil or tar are different in character from oils obtainedfrom the usual methods of blending and distillation. The blended oilproduced is comparatively free from heavy pitchy material and is ofconsiderable economic value, as it permits cheaper production andproduces by-products of greater value.

In actual practice, we believe that the type of even here described andheated from below only will produce the best results when a bottomtemperature or 800 to 1300 G. is maintained. This results in theproduction of high temperature coke but comparatively lowtemperaturedistillation products. This is due to the fact that the temperature inand above the coal mass remains comparatively low; The oils remainliquid at atmosaheric temperature. r

The oil may be employed for creosoting purposes as recovered, or it maybe distilled and the fractions treated by the usual standard methods toproduce motor fuel, crecte oil. cresylic acid, flotation oil,disinfectants, and several other marketable products. The point ofparticular importance is that apermanently blended oil is obtained andthat the blending takes place in the coke oven and in the coalbed whilethe oils areinavaporizedstate. In other words, as the oil is sointimately fully mixed with the fine coal particles, an intimatephysical mixture of the gases and vapors is obtained during theirnascent state. They are thus permitted to combine chemically andphysically and it is for this reason that a permanent blend is obtainedwhen the vapors and gases are finally condensed.

?ractically any petroleum oil or tar may be blended with a coal tar oilin this manner, and tars and oils from other sources may be similarlyblended by mixing with the crushed coal as already described. Acommercial coke is obtained in each instance, and this obviously forms avaluable lay-product.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secureby Letters Pat cnt is:

A process of producing a creosote oil of undetermined gravity, whichconsists in "nixing a predetermined proportion ofpetroemn oil intimatelywith a predetermined proion of finely crushed coal, coking the mixfrombelow and upwardly under a temerature sufficiently low to chemicallyblend and liberate a maximum amount of vapors d minimum of gas, andccndensing the V947 ore and gases liberated.

THOMAS COX. MARK L. REQUA. ALEXANDER S. KNOWLES.

